St. Matthew Passion
The St. Matthew Passion is the monumental passion by J. S. Bach considered to be one of the pillars of Western musical culture. It was first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday, 1727 or 1729.
Musical settings of the story of the Passion of Jesus taken from the four Gospels had been part of church liturgy during Holy Week from the earliest times and from the 13th century had taken on some dramatic content with the use of different solo voices for the various characters, supported by choruses for the crowd and disciples. Lutheran settings in northern Germany by the time of Bach had developed into a form of oratorio, presented in the vernacular where chorales, and other settings of devotional texts and even instrumental passages were introduced between the strictly scriptural text passages taken from the appropriate Gospel.
Bach composed five settings of the Passions. One, St. Mark, is lost; there are doubts as to the authenticity St. Luke; and there are references to a single choir version of St Matthew that no longer exists. Only St. John, first performed in 1724, and St. Matthew survive.
The St John Passion had been considered too theatrical, and this aspect was “toned down” in St. Matthew. The work is still extremely large scale however, and is scored for the following:
- Two four-part choruses (choirs) - with an additional female choir for the initial movement. (One or other of these choirs sing the roles of the disciples, followers and unite for the "crowd" and the various chorales throughout the work.)
- Two orchestras, each comprising strings, pairs of [[flute[[s and oboes, a bassoon with organ with other parts requiring three types of oboe, two recorders and a viola da gamba. (This orchestration has changed over the years with performances by modern much larger symphony orchestras using then unknown instruments such as the clarinet.)
- Soloists comprise the “Evangelist” (narrator) a tenor, Jesus (bass) and additional soprano, alto (or contralto) tenor and bass who sing the roles of other characters as required – Pilate, Judas, Joseph of Arimathea etc.,
The text is taken from Martin Luther’s translation of the gospel according to Matthew, interspersed with arias, recitatives and choruses contemplating the events taking place and appropriate chorales – these already familiar to the congregation – appearing from time to time. The material not taken from the scriptures was written by one Christian Freidrich Henrici, working under the non-de-plume Picander, who had already written material for the St John Passion and a number of Back’s cantatas. The narrative, which is in two parts, begins with the events leading up to the Last Supper and ends with Pilate ordering a watch over the Tomb.
The first performances were in 1727 and 1729, before a revised version was heard in 1736. There exists an autographed version of the score in Bach’s own hand that he prepared immediately after this last performance. Already the compositional style of Bach’s mature period was beginning to lose favour and there is no further known performance of the work until 1829 when Felix Mendelssohn prepared and conducted a much augmented version of the score. Similar versions were the norm until the “early music” movement during the last third of the 20th century brought about a plethora of performances and recordings based on modern perceptions of the original style and sound, using “authentic” instruments and techniques.
Either way, this work - with Bach’s own St John Passion and Mass in B minor, and Handel’s “Messiah” - sits at the pinnacle of the sacred music of the High Baroque; and can be included with the greatest works of any genre of any time.